


Vanity

by BrieflyMaximumPrincess



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Beauty and the Beast au!, M/M, Scars, Suicide Attempt, burn scars, no Stockholm Syndrome, suicide threat, toxic personality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-30
Updated: 2016-10-30
Packaged: 2018-08-27 22:53:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8420311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrieflyMaximumPrincess/pseuds/BrieflyMaximumPrincess
Summary: After all the nurses have forfeited, it is on Sam that falls the responsibility to take care of Lucifer, a patient suffering from severe burns. Because of a bad storm, Sam finds himself locked in Lucifer’s big mansion.A tale of vanity and self acceptance.





	1. Bittersweet and strange

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> A big thank you to my beta reader @tatooedluci. (You can find us on tumblr).

It was Sam’s first day in this hospital unit and he didn’t think he would have to take care of one of his new coworkers. Sure, it happened rather often in the ER, where he was before, but adrenaline could make the patients do harsh things under the pain and the panic pressure. He thought long term hospitalization unit would be different. Still, Meg would have a black eye for days to come and she fulminated about it.

  
“That’s it, I’m done. I have been an angel of patience with that dick, but now it’s over. Mr. November can go fuck himself.”

  
The other nurses were agreeing and gratifying her perseverance.

  
“No way, I take charge for this patient. I already paid the price.” Said one nurse.  
“Neither am I. He threw an entire lunch tray at me, one time.” Said another one.  
“Sam, you’re the greenhorn, you take him.”

  
They all agreed. Sam had no choice. Meg briefed him about that patient that all the medical staff hated.

  
“Mr. November, in room 23, suffers from severe burns.”  
“The fire from two weeks ago?” Sam asked. Meg confirmed with a nod. “I remember that night. It was a nightmare in the ER.”  
“I trust you with that. But this man’s main problem is not really the injuries. It’s that he is a despicable human being. You are lucky, he will go away in three days. Nobody wants to take care of him anymore because he is the worst asshole to ever walked the Earth. Be careful, you saw what he can do”. She said showing her wounded eye in emphasis. “He can throw anything with a sick precision. Remember to duck. You will take care of him, redo the bandages and bring him his meals. Other than that, don’t bother to visit him or he will try to harm you to make you leave.”

  
Sam was a firm believer that human contact and compassion was an important part of the healing process, so he wanted to go and introduce himself to the patient despite Meg’s advices. When he arrived in front of the door 23, he thought he had the wrong information.

  
“Meg.” He called. “Is it the good room? It says Milton on the name tag, but you called him November.”

  
Meg laughed.

  
“November is not his name. That's how we call him. You will see why on the staff’s private room when you will end your shift.”

  
Sam was greeted by a pillow when he entered the room 23. It crashed on his face and Sam was glad it was not an heavier object. He acted like it didn’t happened and walked toward the bed where he put back the pillow.

  
“Go away. I already saw enough of you all today.”

  
Mr. Milton had his face turned toward the closed window. It was dark in the room, only lighted by a side lamp over the bed’s head. He intentionally avoided to look at Sam.

  
“Good morning. I’m Sam Winchester and I have the day shift today so if you need anything, just call me ok?”  
“Go fuck yourself.”

  
Sam did as if he had not heard.

  
“You want me to open the shutters ? It’s all dark in here, but the sun shines outside.”  
“No, I want you to take your happiness up your ass and go die elsewhere.”  
“I see there is no purpose on opening the shutters indeed. You are such a little ball of sunshine”.

  
The man faced Sam with a glance so angry, even the shade of the room couldn’t hide the hate in it. The patient’s face was covered with burn scars, on his forehead, trailing on his temples, following his cheek bones and falling on his neck to disappear in his shirt. Sam had seen horrible wounds in the ER, but he had to hide a hiss. Surely, it would have been less spectacular in plain daylight, but in the dim light it was impressive.

  
Sam saw what was coming and remember Meg’s advice just in time to duck and avoid the water bottle that flew over the room to crash just behind him. Sam picked it up but instead of putting it back somewhere, Sam opened it and emptied its content on the the man in front of him in a smooth move. The surprise painted the man’s wounded face as he yelled a very unmanly scream.

  
“As I said.” Sam declared as if nothing happened. “If you need anything, just call me.”

  
The rest of the day was easier. The other patients were less difficult to handle than Mr. Milton. Obviously, the guy had come across a difficult path. Sam understood. After all, it was easy to imagine how hard it was to suddenly be disfigured because of burns, not to talk about the pain the guy must have felt before the painkillers could kick in.

  
The day had been busy and Sam was tired when he went to the staff’s private room to gather this things before he went home. There, on the wall, was a calendar the nurses have hung. Nude men on explicit positions. Not that Sam wanted to complain, he had seen so many women versions of this calendar. This one was at least arty enough and printed on quality black and white glossy paper. Sam turned the pages to November and there he was. The patient of the room 23. Head thrown back, eyes closed and mouth opened in pleasure. The angle of the picture prevented to see his anatomy, but showed all the side of his body and the game of lights enhanced the muscles of his back and tights.

  
The guy was a model. “Was” Sam’s brain insisted on the past tense. His skin seemed soft and flawless. Sam felt sick. He thought he understood how hard it must have been for him to suddenly look like this, but now he was sure he had underestimated it.

 


	2. Finding you can change

The next day, Sam started his work by going in each rooms of his sector to say a word to the patients. He was mostly welcomed. He finished his round by the room 23 with the idea to redo the bandages at the same time, so he won’t have to come back later on the morning to take care of this. If Mr. Milton didn’t want to have company, he could at least try to reduce it to the minimum.

  
When he entered the room after a quick knock on the door, the same pillow as yesterday struck him in the face. The room was still in the dark and the patient hadn’t bothered to get up, still stubbornly turned to the closed window to not look at him.

  
“Not to avoid to look at you.” Sam’s brain supplied. “To prevent you to look at him”.

  
Sam’s heart clenched a little.

  
He went straight to the window and opened the shutters under the patient’s curses. Sam silenced him by throwing him the pillow to the face, like Mr. Milton did to him just a minute ago, provoking a string of colorful insults.

  
Sam walked, calm, to the bed and invaded Mr. Milton’s personal space in a impolite way and put a finger on his mouth.

  
“Now you shut up. I get it. You are a very rude man and you don’t want to see a single human being for the moment. You hate everyone and everything. But it’s my job to nurse you and fix you the best I can before you walk away in two days. So the sooner you let me do my job, the sooner I will go out of this room. Now let me see those wounds I have to clean up.”

  
After that, the patient said nothing more. He sat straight on his bed and begun to undress the best he could. Sam helped him. He took off the bandages and patiently cleaned up the burns before redo the bandages again on the covered body parts. When Sam came to his face, Mr. Milton had no other choice but to face him. Sam smiled to him but Mr. Milton avoided his eyes and fixed the wall next to him. Sam said nothing when tears fell down his cheeks. He asked him if he was in pain when he hissed as he cleaned up the wound in his back but received no answer. Sam had remarked the pills on the table. The patient hadn’t taken all the medicine he should have.

  
“You know, you don’t have to feel pain for the moment. In a near future, you will have to reduce the painkillers, but it’s too soon for now”. Sam explained. “Try to move your hands a little more if you can today. The skin around the burn can be very painful, but you have to keep the mobility on. It’s important.”

  
The man still fixed the wall.

  
“And leave the shutters open. It’s morbid here.”

  
Still no answer.

  
“I will come back in several hours with your lunch. Don’t throw me anything or I swear you will regret it.”

  
Nothing.

  
When Sam came back with the lunch, a pillow flew. Sam had expected it and he managed to not spill the lunch tray on the ground. He put it on the table, walked to the door, very calmly, took the pillow and came back to the bed. As Mr. Milton was stubbornly looking to the other way, Sam beat the back of his head with it before he walked to the door, keeping the pillow under his arm. When he closed the door, he heard the distinct sound of the lunch tray crashing to the floor. So it was now minus a pillow and minus a meal, Sam guessed.

  
The next day, Sam did the same. He finished his morning round in the room 23, opened the shutters and ordered the patient to let him do his job. As he took care of the scars, he could feel the patient tensed in pain under his fingers. He gave him the untouched pills, still waiting for him. As he wasn’t taking them, Sam planted himself on the bed in front of him and scrutinized him. Mr. Milton still looked elsewhere. Sam grabbed his chin and forced him to face him until he accept to take the painkillers.

  
“You don’t have to suffer.”

  
When he left after the medical cares, Sam threw a pillow in the bed, next to the patient.

  
When Sam came back with the lunch, nothing was thrown at him this time and the light still came from the window. It was a progress.

  
The next morning was the last. Sam did his job without having to fight for it. He was glad that his patient was less mean than before and congratulate his tenacity when a pillow crashed on the back of his head as he was leaving the room. Sam turned abruptly to find his patient just behind him.

  
“My name is Lucifer by the way.”  
“Oh, he speaks.” Sam said. “I know, I read your file.”  
“I go home today. I wanted to say goodbye.”  
“Don’t worry, it will be alright”.

  
Lucifer turned on his heels and went away to look through the window. Sam thought it would be the last time he saw him. He was wrong.


	3. Learning you were wrong

It was a week after he left that Lucifer was admitted again in Sam’s hospital unit.

  
Sam was here when the doctor resumed his state, reading his file. Severe depression, infected wounds and deep cuts on both wrists. Like usual, Lucifer avoided their gazes and didn’t answer the questions they asked. Like the last time, the nurses refused to take care of him, remembering too well how he behaved. But this time, Sam was not put on his case by default, he volunteered for it. And this time Sam couldn’t stay calm when a pillow hit him when he tried to enter the room.

  
This time he went to his side, took him by the wrists, making Lucifer cry in pain, jolted him seated and slapped him hard.

  
“Don’t ever do that again!” He screamed.

  
Sam could have lost his job. Lucifer stood shocked and stared straight in his eyes for once. They stayed frozen in that position for too long before Sam released his grip and left the room without adding a word. He wasn’t sure why he had lost his temper like that. Sam never was the hot blooded type. But most of all, he hoped Lucifer had understood that he had talk about the suicide attempt and and not the flying pillow.

  
On the next day, Sam had taken back his routine to clean Lucifer’s burn scars at the end of his morning tour.

  
“Why don’t you take care of your burns? A nurse was supposed to come to your home every day to help you.”  
“I wanted to die. So why bother?”

  
Sam didn’t expected to have an answer. He thought Lucifer would have stare to the wall again.

  
“Because it must be painful.” He answered.  
“Yes it is.”  
“You don’t have to suffer. I have the impression I said that to you a hundred times already. What do I have to do for you to listen?”  
“Take care of me.”  
“That’s what I’m doing.”  
“I mean at home. If it’s you, I may accept to be helped.” Lucifer said.  
“Why me?”  
“Because it’s have to be you. Or…"  
“Or what?”  
“Or I will kill myself.” Lucifer finished.  
“It’s blackmail.”  
“Take it or leave it.”

  
It was wrong. It was unhealthy and it was against his job’s rules. But Sam agreed. And when Lucifer came home, Sam came too after his day shift.

  
The address he gave him was far off town. Sam drove for miles and miles after the suburbs. The weather was horrible. It had rained all day long and the road he was on had given way to a mud path. Sam would have thought he had taken a wrong turn if it was not for his GPS to say he was on the right road. After an hour again, he finally arrived to big gates that opened automatically when he approached. Ahead, was a path running under big trees and going around a fountain of a creature throating dark waters from its mouth. Sam saw the big shadow of a mansion ripping the sky in a flash of lightning.

  
“Great. A perfect place for an horror movie” Sam thought. Luckily, he wasn’t easily afraid. Sam hurried in, the door opening itself when he arrived to it’s level. Inside, all was dark. There was no light at all. Sam looked around himself to discover a big entrance with an enormous staircase, some paintings on the wall, but Sam couldn’t see them really because of the dark, some closed doors, and in another lightning he thought he saw some statues on his right, just beside the door. The thunder crashed somewhere outside, close enough for Sam to feel the electricity in the air. He felt something move just outside his angle of vision. Then the door closed itself and Sam found himself in a dark so deep he couldn’t see any of what he had saw just a second before.

  
It would have been easy to yield to the temptation to think about ghosts and paranormal events, but Sam was an adult now and didn’t believe in this things. He called.

  
“Is anybody home?”

  
Something grabbed his shoulder from behind where the statue had been and Sam screeched so loud, the thunder didn’t covered it entirely. In the darkness, something echoed his scream with another.

  
“Oh my God, you scared me!”  
“Lucifer?”  
“Yes of course, who do you want it to be?”  
“Jack the Reaper? Why the fuck is it so dark here? I can’t see a thing. You try to give me a heart attack?”  
“Not at all.” Lucifer defended himself. “The power went out. I was on my way to the electricity counter when you arrived. And I thought it would be better to let you in than to let you wait under the Deluge.”  
“But why don’t you have a light?”  
“I said I was on my way to re-establish the power”.  
“In the dark? You’re kidding me, right?  
“Why would I need a light? I know my own house. Follow me.” Lucifer said taking Sam’s hand to guide him in the dark.

  
Lucifer brought him to a salon where a enormous fireplace lightened the room. He made him sit and left to check on the electricity. Sam settled down a comfortable sofa and waited, detailing the room around him as best as he could. Lucifer came back after a long moment.

  
“I can’t bring the power back. The storm must have hit nearby. We have no electricity so the landline for the phone is dead too, of course.”  
“I have a cell, if you need.”  
“That’s sweet but there is no coverage here. We are too far from everything. We are cut off from the world until tomorrow I think.”  
“Oh so I guess, we can start with your bandages and then I’m on my way.”  
“Don’t even think about going out.”

  
Now Sam could admit he was starting to get scared.

  
“And why not? Am I a prisoner here?”  
“Much more like my guest. Have you seen how it is outside? It’s not a regular storm anymore with this wind and the thunder, I don’t take the risk to let you go outside. You could die under one of my trees or on the road. You will stay the night.”  
“And if I disagree?”

  
Sam thought he saw a bad spark in Lucifer’s eyes.

  
“I won’t open the entrance grills. You can always try to find another escape by the park if you think you can do it.”  
“Is that a threat?” Sam asked.  
“Of course not. Please, Sam, stay the night, it’s safer.”

  
After that, Lucifer offered a drink to Sam and Sam did what he came for and took care of Lucifer’s wounds as best as he could under the fireplace light. Then Lucifer offered Sam to take a lunch with him, but Sam prefered to decline the invitation, claiming he wasn’t hungry. Lucifer didn’t insist and lead him to a bedroom upstair the main staircase in the entrance. He gave him a flashlight and ignited a fire in a modest fireplace in the bedroom. Before he wished him goodnight, Lucifer told him his own bedroom was down the corridor on the left and the nearest bathroom was two doors away. If he ever changed his mind, he could always find food downstair in the kitchen, but he couldn’t go by the door behind the main staircase. When Sam asked why, Lucifer said it was none of his business and it was rude to snoop in a stranger’s house anyway.

  
Of course, he couldn’t have piqued Sam’s interest more if he had wanted it. Two hours later, Sam still couldn’t sleep thinking about what could be behind this door. And sincerely he was hungry. Now that he was safe in a warm bed, his past fear seemed childish. So was his urge to see what was behind the forbidden door but he had hard time to repress it.

  
After all, Lucifer had said he could pick something to eat in the kitchen if he wanted. Sam got up and went downstairs The storm still roared outside, the wind weighted on the house, making it crack like the old construction it was. Lightnings streaked the black as ink sky through the windows in the entrance. Sam inspected the empty hall with his flashlight. Slowly, nonchalantly, he walked to the main staircase and go around it. The door was here. It was the same door as the others. Sam put his hand on the door handle, it wasn’t locked. Just a little look couldn’t do any wrong. He opened it barely to take a glimpse. A lightning crashed somewhere nearby in the park and the whole room was lighted for a split second. Sam didn’t expect to find this behind the door. He opened it wider. The door creaked horribly. Sam froze, afraid the sound could have woken up Lucifer. He waited a moment, trying to hear something other that the storm outside. Nothing. Sam entered the room.

  
It was a sort of big greenhouse or a winter garden. Vegetation grew wild and luxurious, plants Sam didn’t recognize for the most in the dim light he provided. But he could smell roses, their distinct perfume drowning the room. Sam walked upon them, sniffed their smell and touched the delicate and colorful petals. It was beautiful. Even in the dark of the night with the sound of the wind and the rain hammering the roof loudly or the tree branches bouncing on it.

  
“You have a death wish or what?”

  
The sound of Lucifer’s voice behind him gave Sam the feeling he had dive in a pool of ice water. Lucifer grabbed him by the sleeve and manhandled him to the door. Sam jolted him away and fled to his bedroom without adding a word. He could hear glass shatter behind him and he didn’t stop running before he had locked his bedroom door behind him and buried himself under his covers. Pathetic, he was pathetic he thought as he shook from head to toe in his bed. The sound of smashing glass and torn metal were still coming from downstairs.


	4. Neither one prepared

Sam woke up in the morning, his head still covered by multiple covers. He opened an eye outside his nest of warmth. The fire had died in the fireplace. The rain still hammered the windows, but there were no more thunder and lightning. Sam must have fallen asleep from exhaustion after all the events of last evening. What a nightmare it was. Lucifer had frightened him last night and Sam had only one idea in mind in the morning: go away as fast as he could. He felt like he was trapped in the mansion and he didn’t like it at all. When he walked down the stairs, he reviewed all the reasons he could give to go away despite Lucifer’s intrigues.

  
He expected to find him in the kitchen, eating breakfast but he heard noises coming from the winter garden instead. Sam came close and snuck through the opened door. The greenhouse was entirely devastated. An enormous tree had fallen across the glass roof and laid in the mud. It had just avoided the Mansion’s wall by a little. All the glasses were smashed and the roses were crushed on the ground. In the middle of the desolation, Lucifer stood in wet clothes under the rain that drained from the shattered roof. He was taking the roses up and trying to save what he could. Sam hesitantly came to him.

  
“Leave”  
“I’m sorry for your greenhouse. It was beautiful. I mean, I saw it last night before it…”  
“Go the fuck away!” Lucifer screamed.

  
Sam didn’t waited to be told twice. He went straight to his car and ignited the engine. The park was devastated. Trees had fallen all over the place in the park, the path was reduced to sticky mud under the car’s wheels. When Sam arrived to the big grills, bad news waited for him. A tree laid in the way. Sam couldn’t go around it and it was to big to be moved by a single man. There was nothing to do, Sam had to go back to the mansion.

  
Lucifer was still in the greenhouse. Sam found him lying on the ground. Sam came to him and sat by his side.

  
“What do you want again?” Lucifer asked.  
“The main entrance is blocked so I came to ask if there is another way to go out. Why are you lying down here?”  
“Because I sank and I can’t get up.”  
“Did you hurt yourself?”

  
Lucifer shrugged. Sam raised him on his feet and led him to the bathroom upstairs. He helped him undress from the wet clothes and found blood on the bandages of his back and on his hands as he expected it. Sam ordered Lucifer to shower, despite the fact that there were no hot water. The power was still cut. Then, Sam guided Lucifer near the fireplace to warm him up and took care of his wounds.

  
There was a big frame on the wall, picturing Lucifer. It was a very good photograph. At first, Sam thought it was in black and white, but then he remarked the eyes were the exact shade of blue as the real Lucifer in flesh and bones. The colors faded in a play of lights that made him look ethereal, almost inhuman. Lucifer remarked Sam’s gaze on it.

  
“It was taken some years ago. It’s my favourite.”  
“You’re beautiful.” Sam complimented.  
“Was.” Lucifer precised.

  
What Sam could have answered to that? He didn’t wanted to lie, and somehow he knew Lucifer wouldn’t have appreciated a false compliment anyway. Sam prefered to change the subject.

  
“Your park had severely suffered from the storm of last night. Some trees have fallen on the way. Not to talk about your greenhouse.”

  
Lucifer sighed to that mention.

  
“How will you do to clean all this?”  
“I have a gardener to help me on the park. I will hire some more help, I suppose. But I’m not sure for the greenhouse.”  
“You don’t want to rebuilt it? It seemed to be a little paradise. It’s a shame it’s ruined”.  
“Yes it is. But maybe it’s for the best. I spent so many hours in here, shaping it to my will. I don’t know if I have the strength to start it anew, from the beginning.”  
“Why did you forbid me yesterday to see it? The little I saw was beautiful.” Sam asked.  
“It is… Was... It was my personal refuge. Like my own secret garden but in real. Something just for me, you know? And yes, it was beautiful. But it’s not anymore. Now, it’s destroyed, like everything in my life. So let’s not talk about it anymore.”  
“This afternoon, I will help you gather the flowers that haven’t been torn.”

  
It surprised Sam a little that the words have passed his lips before he could think about it. He had work today, he couldn’t stay here all day. But in the other hand, all in Lucifer silently cried for help and Sam’s good nature just couldn't look elsewhere. So Sam called sick for the day.

  
They worked under the never ending rain all afternoon. The power wasn’t back when the night fell. Sam stayed the night again, but this time he shared Lucifer’s meal and wasn’t scared by the old mansion, nor by his owner.

  
The day after, Lucifer asked for Sam’s help to cut some trunks of fallen trees and to free the main alley so Sam could get his car out. It took more time that Sam had expected. When they finished, Sam was very late for work. He should have been at the hospital four hours earlier. He had six unanswered calls on his phone. As he was usually a good employee, his boss assumed he was still sick from yesterday and Sam felt bad to realize he had called him so many times because he feared that he needed help. He didn’t call back because he couldn't lie openly to the face of someone who was concerned about his health and welfare. Instead he sent a text, mortified by his own cowardice. Lucifer rewarded him for his help with a big meal he cooked the best he could and some good wine. A little bit too much of good wine.

  
The next day, Sam overslept. When he woke up, it was already the beginning of the afternoon. He had asked to Lucifer to wake him up early enough so he could go to work today. But he didn’t do it and let him sleep. It was intended because Sam found a plate with breakfast near his bed, in his room. Obviously Lucifer had been awake and voluntary didn’t wake him like he said he would do. Sam quickly got dressed and swallowed a piece of toast and orange juice before he ran down the stairs.

  
The rain seemed to never end, but the power was finally back. Under the electric light, the whole mansion seemed different. Less mysterious and less scary too. The figures carved on the woodwork of the stairs were no demons anymore to Sam’s eyes, the paintings didn’t represent ghosts too. There were no more shadows hiding monsters in the dark.

  
Lucifer was talking to another man. When he approached, Sam felt weird under his too focused stare.

  
“Sam, may I present you my agent? Or should I say my former agent, as Azazel came today to tell me I will never work as a model again.”

  
Sam’s heart ached to the tone of Lucifer’s voice. The man aimed for him and Sam had no other choice but to shake his hand.

  
“I never had the pleasure to meet you. You’re one of Lucifer’s friend?”

  
Sam wasn’t sure he could pretend to this qualification, but Azazel didn’t gave him the time to precise it. He took a business card from his inside pocket and gave it to Sam.

  
“We are searching for a new Star right now, as we have some… Works to give to a new face.” It sounded like a reproach to Lucifer. “You are an handsome man, I can tell. I’m sure we could make you a great model with a little training. Call me and I will make you a shiny Star, trust me.”

  
Azazel tilted his head and found the exit door on himself with barely a goodbye to Lucifer.

  
“Woh this guy is weird.”  
“He is a very reputed agent for models. If he thinks you are pretty, it’s practically written that you will be a famous face soon.”  
“You tell me. You think I could be a model?” Sam joked but Lucifer didn’t taste the humor. “And what is his problem with stars? This is a ridiculous way to speak to people don’t you think?”  
“I was the Morning Star because I was the one who shone the brightest, he used to say.” Lucifer stated blankly.  
“Lucif…”  
“Just take your car and go, want you? The way is free. Leave me alone.”


	5. Barely even friends

Sam’s phone rang in the middle of the night. It was not something he liked. He had a tough week at work and each hours of sleep were precious so whatever the person who dared to call him at this ungodly hour wanted, he will never forget it.

  
“What?” he said abruptly.

  
There was a faint sound but nothing else.

  
“I swear, if it’s a telephone prank…” Sam threatened.  
“I’m sorry.” A voice said before the line went dead.

  
“Was it Lucifer?” Sam fogged brain wondered. He had tried to reach him for days. When Sam came to his house again for the medical cares, Lucifer didn’t open the grills. He tried to call him on the phone, but he had no luck. After some days, Sam resigned and stopped trying. His coworkers, who knew what he was doing in his spare hours, had all agreed it was for the best that Lucifer went out of Sam’s life. They all hated him after his stays in their hospital unit.

  
The phone number of the caller had been saved in Sam’s phone. He redialed it. To his surprise, it connected.

  
“Lucifer, is that you?” Sam asked with a much softer voice.  
“Yes, I’m sorry I called you Sam. It’s nothing. Go back to sleep.”  
“It must be important, if you call me in the middle of the night.”

  
For a moment there was no answer.

  
“Sam, I think I made a mistake.”

  
Sam never went out of his home quicker than that night. For the whole ride, he prayed to every deities he had ever heard of to not arrive too late. Lucifer had said he had hurt himself again. That he had cut his wrists opened again tonight. Sam told him the first steps to prevent him from bleeding out, but Lucifer refused to call an ambulance and said that if Sam would do it he would kill himself before they could scold him. Sam had sworn he would not call for help and he would come himself. He didn’t know why he stayed true to his words. Maybe, because Lucifer was still on the phone as Sam urged through the city all the way to the countryside, and his brain couldn’t focus on another task then to speed his way to Lucifer before he died. From time to time, Lucifer took more time to answer whatever Sam was asking him about to make sure he was still conscious and Sam’s heart skipped a bit.

  
When he reached the grills, it was already opened. Sam jumped off his car before the engine had stopped and he ran to the door. It was opened, all was dark. There was no light at all in the entire mansion. Sam rushed to the livingroom where Lucifer had said he was and he was relieved to see that he was really here. Lucifer was curled up in a corner of the couch, his head leaned on the armrest. The room was just lighted by the rough fire that roared in the fireplace. When Sam arrived to his side, a pale smile crossed Lucifer’s face.

  
Luckily the cuts were not as deep as the last time Lucifer did it. Sam could take care of it without bringing him to the ER, where Lucifer categorically refused to go anyway. He said he was so ashamed, he didn’t wanted to bother the medical crew for that.

  
The more Lucifer apologized, the more Sam suspected him to have reach for help more than to really had wanted to die.

  
“I’m so sorry. I don’t know why I did that.” Lucifer sobbed for the hundredth time.  
“Why did you call me?”  
“I didn’t know what to do.”  
“Yes, but why me?” Sam asked.

  
Lucifer stayed silent for a moment before he answered in a whisper.

  
“You’re the only one who still looks at me in the eyes. You’re the only one who doesn’t flinch when you look at me. The only one to not pity me since I had my accident.”  
“You don’t make it easy for the people around you, you know? You constantly shove them away.”  
“They just see some sort of monster in me, now. I scare them.”  
“Why is it so important what people see in you?”  
“You don’t understand.” Lucifer explained. “Since I was a child, people always said I was beautiful. I always have been pretty. Others were kind, or smart or funny… I don’t know. I was always the pretty one. And everybody loved me, always. And now, it all changed in the flick of one night. Because of that, people can’t look at me anymore and there is no one around me. I used to be always surrounded by friends. People I considered my family. And the moment they saw me with those… Burns on my face. They all disappeared. They all forgot I ever existed. They can’t even look at me. All but you. You are the only one who treats me like a human.”  
“I am not. But you didn’t even let the nurses entered your room at the hospital.”  
“You were the only one who called me by my name. They all called me Mr. November. How could they called me that when my face had literally melted? You never called me that one time.”  
“You heard us?”  
“Of course. What do you think? We can hear all that happens in the corridors from the rooms. And when I first tried to kill myself, you were the only one to not say you understood me. I wanted to die again just to stop hearing the doctors say that they understood why I wanted to kill myself. You were different.”  
“I slapped you”. Sam remembered still not proud of himself for having that gesture at the time.  
“You were the only one to not pity me. You’re my only friend.”

  
Sam smiled shyly. “I”m glad you called me tonight”. He said.


	6. Beauty and the Beast

Sam finished the night at the mansion, once again. He couldn’t leave Lucifer alone, he had no choice. He had found the previous room he had slept in prepared for him. Lucifer had left the sheets on the bed, he had just made it, like he knew he would come back. Some first hand accessories had even been left here for him. A toothbrush, a towel... It should have been alarming, but it was too late to wonder about that and the warm bed felt welcoming. A little bit like his own home. This time he had settled his alarm to wake up and go to his job so he wouldn’t have to pretend to be sick again. His boss had turned suspicious about the days he had spent here under the false pretext to be sick when Meg distractedly mentioned he had contacts with Lucifer after he left the hospital. Sam thought his boss knew he wasn’t sick and he didn’t like to have to lie to protect his previous lies. It was a dangerous loop.

  
Sam waited for Lucifer to get up too. After more than an hour, he would be late if he didn’t go. Lucifer should have been awake by now. It started to worry him. Sam decided to go check in his bedroom. In front of the room’s door he hesitated. What if he entered and found Lucifer dead, drained of blood, in his bed ? They had spoke most of the night, and Lucifer seemed fine enough when he left him to go to bed in his room. Sam gathered his courage and knocked to the door. Lucifer's well awake voice answered him to come in.

  
“What are you doing? I started to worry. Are you alright?”  
“Mostly yes but I won’t get up today.”  
“And why that?” Sam asked.  
“It’s not a good day. But you can go, Sam. I don’t want you to have problems at work because of me.”

  
It was a little bit late for that, Sam thought but didn’t say. Instead he showed his concern.

  
“And leave you all alone in the dark, knowing you don’t want to get up off your bed? You’re kidding me right? You wanted to kill yourself yesterday.”  
“And again, I’m so sorry for that. But you don’t have to worry for me today. I just don’t want to be today. I will wait for tomorrow, that’s all.”  
“Not suspicious at all… What’s the matter? What is it with today?” Sam asked.  
“The annual party Azazel’s agency organizes is tonight. It’s a big event. And I can’t go.”  
“Why not, if you want to?”  
“Don’t be ridiculous. I know what I look like. I certainly won’t go to a party where everybody will look good and treat me like a monster.”  
“I can see, you’re dying to go. Is this the invitation?” Sam asked showing a black envelope on the nightstand. He took it and read it while he sat on Lucifer’s bed. “It’s for two. I can go with you.”

  
Lucifer stared at him with wide eyes. A grin settled on his lips. Sam blushed when he realised what he had proposed.

  
“I mean... If you have no date, of course.”  
“Why would you want to go with me?”  
“Because it could be fun. I never went to this kind of party.” Sam babbled.  
“I don’t lie to you, you could at least show me the respect to do the same.”  
“I think you should get out of your house. You stay here, alone, way too much. And I’m curious to see you in a suit. I bet you look good in one.” Sam admitted.

  
Lucifer’s smirk disappeared.

  
“I used to look good.”  
“Please, put this aside. Just for tonight. I don’t say it will be easy. I don’t say, they won’t look at you or judge you. But you can’t stay the rest of your life locked in here.”  
“Why not? I’m good here. I have all I need.”  
“It’s so obvious that you are fully happy when you can’t get up because you can’t go to a social event.” Sam remarked with irony.  
“They won’t let me in, Sam.”  
“If you don’t want to come with me, I will go anyway. Don’t you remember Azazel wants me to work for him. I just have to call him, and I’m sure I can have invitations too. But it would be better if you could come with me and protect my innocence from this sharks, don’t you think?“  
“It’s not a world for you Sam. You’re too good for that.”  
“Exactly.” Sam confirmed. “I don’t even want to be a model. That’s not my thing. But I will go to that party, I decided. So please come with me.”  
“Are you inviting me to the ball?” Lucifer smirked.  
“ It’s time to for the Morning Star to rise again, don’t you think?”

  
Sam had to call his boss to have the day free. He wasn’t proud to do it but at least he didn’t lie. He told it would sound weird and disrespectful but he needed a free day to be ready to escort a friend in need to an important event. To the sound of the voice through the phone, Sam wasn’t sure he still had a job to go to tomorrow. It didn’t matter. It should have. But Lucifer’s smile was more important.

  
That night, they walked side by side to the reception. Sam never wore a suit this good looking before. Lucifer offered it to him from a shop Sam would have never set a foot in on his own free will since the prices rocked so high in the air.

  
The hostility toward Lucifer was hard to not acknowledge. Lucifer was tensed and looked like he wanted to run home at any moment. Sam eased the tension down by joking and focusing entirely on him. He was taking care of him, soothing his stress away with soft touches and warm smiles.

  
Azazel finally came to them and welcomed Sam with a visible pleasure. He totally ignored Lucifer as he intended to present Sam as his future new Star to everyone. But the more Azazel tried to ignore Lucifer and take a better grip on Sam, the more this one hung closed to Lucifer to the point it was laughable and Azazel had to give up. When he finally left them alone, pretending to have host obligations, Sam was curled to Lucifer’s side, his head leaned on his shoulder, his arms wrapped around Lucifer’s chest. They openly laughed for a moment.

  
Sam will never know if it was Azazel or someone else who put the song loud enough that all conversations stopped. It was obviously aimed to harm Lucifer and it worked. Sam saw refrained tears barely down his cheeks and he sensed how Lucifer tensed, how his whole body went stiff in a fraction of second when he recognized the song. It was mean, nasty, vicious, wicked. Sam couldn’t pick a word.

  
Tale as old as time, the theme song from the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast. And it was easy to guess who played the Beast tonight.

  
Lucifer wanted to flee when the old tea pot started to sing but Sam held him back by the arm.

  
“Let’s go back home, Sam.” Lucifer pleaded.  
“No wait.”  
“Please.” Lucifer begged. The tears were harder to hide as the time past.

  
If they made a beast of Lucifer, Sam was willing to assume the role of the beauty. Let them all be the ignorant mass.

  
Sam bent in a reverence in front of Lucifer, still holding his arm to keep him from running away. Lucifer didn’t get immediately what Sam wanted. He questioned him silently in a glance, wondering what madness he was inventing. In all reply, Sam put a hand in the hollow of Lucifer’s back and enlaced the fingers of their other hands. Lucifer felt Sam press his body flush against his. The surprise helping, Sam had no difficulties to drag Lucifer along in a valse.

  
Lucifer couldn’t remove his eyes from Sam’s. He forgot the world ever existed and lost tracks of time. The only things remaining were the sounds of the song, the softness of the music slowly gaining in power, the warmth of the quaky voice and the grogginess of the dance.

  
The last note died in the silence. Sam’s hand pressed in Lucifer’s back. His eyes closed. He bent slowly, his lips brushed against Lucifer’s, soft and tender. They kissed and Lucifer melted. He felt like his legs had given out and he was flying.

  
Then Sam receded and opened his eyes. He whispered so low, only Lucifer could hear him.

  
“There is so much more than what you know here. Let me show you how bigger the world can be.”  
“Yes” was the only word Lucifer could answer at this moment, utterly lost in Sam.

  
Sam led Lucifer out of the room, without a single look back to the people that used to fill Lucifer’s past life.


End file.
